Another Living Shred track creeped up onto Soundcloud last night, and it’s worming its way through my brain.

Soundcloud’s a crazy beast - the rabbit hole is deep. Since hopping in to listen to this track I’ve also opened up four more artist streams and stumbled across this bootleg remix LS did of //TENSE//’s “Drifting” to which you should certainly listen.

Source: SoundCloud / livingshred

iamnickgreer: THE DEBUT ALBUM AVAILABLE JANUARY 31, 2013 (1.31.13) This is something you’ll want to have on your radar. Check out Nick’s bandcamp for a taste of what’s in store. Maybe start with “Black Cadillac” - just a suggestion. You can catch Nick in person several nights a week at Prohibition Bar, as well.
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iamnickgreer:

THE DEBUT ALBUM AVAILABLE JANUARY 31, 2013 (1.31.13)

This is something you’ll want to have on your radar. Check out Nick’s bandcamp for a taste of what’s in store. Maybe start with “Black Cadillac” - just a suggestion.

You can catch Nick in person several nights a week at Prohibition Bar, as well.

Maybe you have nothing to do tonight, or possibly you’re already headed to the Galleria to do a little holiday shopping. Either way, stop by the Sony Store for a completely free shindig featuring The Tontons and a man who ought to be ranked as one of the most impressive DJ’s in the country, DJ Sun. Poster legend Jermaine Rogers will be in attendance as well, signing autographs. There are other perks, like the Banh Mieria truck, free booze, and the whole thing is hosted by none other than my pal, Craig Hlavaty of the Houston Press. Show up early enough and you may land a free shirt designed by Rogers. Make sure to RSVP.
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Maybe you have nothing to do tonight, or possibly you’re already headed to the Galleria to do a little holiday shopping. Either way, stop by the Sony Store for a completely free shindig featuring The Tontons and a man who ought to be ranked as one of the most impressive DJ’s in the country, DJ Sun. Poster legend Jermaine Rogers will be in attendance as well, signing autographs. There are other perks, like the Banh Mieria truck, free booze, and the whole thing is hosted by none other than my pal, Craig Hlavaty of the Houston Press.

Show up early enough and you may land a free shirt designed by Rogers. Make sure to RSVP.

Source: thehookup.flavorpill.com

dryvetyme: rapcoloringbook: Profoundly happy to say that we’ve accepted an offer from New York’s ABRAMS, a publisher of high-quality art and illustrated books, to turn Bun B’s Jumbo Coloring And Rap Activity Tumblr into Bun B’s Jumbo Coloring And Rap Activity Book. (Don’t fret: The site will continue to be updated several times a week, same as it has been.) The book is tentatively scheduled to be released in June 2013. While we’ll of course include a couple of your favorite pages from here, it’ll be full of lots of unseen great, funny, entertaining pages that we’ve been holding onto.  Thank you to everyone that has taken a moment to pass the name of this site around or say something nice about one of the pages. Thank you to all of the writers that have written about us. Thank you to the rappers that have embraced the project. And thank you to all of the behind the scenes people that have helped moved these big, heavy pieces into place. It means a lot. Sincerely.  More news later. Celebratory UGK music now. Huzzah! Congrats to @BunBTrillOG, @SheaSerrano, and @RapColoringBook! BOOM! Big news from some fellow Houstonians. If you’re not following the rap coloring book yet, start right away.
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dryvetyme:

rapcoloringbook:

Profoundly happy to say that we’ve accepted an offer from New York’s ABRAMS, a publisher of high-quality art and illustrated books, to turn Bun B’s Jumbo Coloring And Rap Activity Tumblr into Bun B’s Jumbo Coloring And Rap Activity Book. (Don’t fret: The site will continue to be updated several times a week, same as it has been.)

The book is tentatively scheduled to be released in June 2013. While we’ll of course include a couple of your favorite pages from here, it’ll be full of lots of unseen great, funny, entertaining pages that we’ve been holding onto. 

Thank you to everyone that has taken a moment to pass the name of this site around or say something nice about one of the pages. Thank you to all of the writers that have written about us. Thank you to the rappers that have embraced the project. And thank you to all of the behind the scenes people that have helped moved these big, heavy pieces into place. It means a lot. Sincerely. 

More news later. Celebratory UGK music now.

Huzzah! Congrats to @BunBTrillOG, @SheaSerrano, and @RapColoringBook!

BOOM! Big news from some fellow Houstonians. If you’re not following the rap coloring book yet, start right away.

Source: rapcoloringbook

State of the Blog: Catching Up, Edition One

As I mentioned a couple months ago, I’ve been quite busy over here. This has led to HTR being on a vague sense of hiatus, unfortunately. While I’m not able to keep everyone up to the minute on local music news, I certainly hate seeing it fly by and not reporting on it at all.


I went out to the Knights Of The Fire Kingdom show this past Saturday, and boy was that fun. A few of the Houston Texans were jumping around (yes, really), beers were spilt, a guitar was fixed with a pocket knife, and that was just the beginning. In addition, I saw the wonderful Jeremy Hart of Space City Rock - a rare treat, and Brandon Lemons of The Treaty Oak Collective. Jeoaf Johnson, frontman for the Knights, had brought along hand-cut copies of their Chinese Dragon/No No No No seven-inch, a super-limited run of fourteen that Brandon had cut this week. No word on  whether more copies will be released, but you can stream the songs at KOTFK’s Bandcamp.

I also managed to catch Beaumont’s Hello Chief, who dropped an epic Elton John snippet in the middle of their last song, and a nice little dose of Austin’s Quiet Company on Saturday.

In talking with Jeremy Hart, I mentioned that I’ve got a few plans for HTR. Yes, the site is indeed essentially on hiatus - it’s succumbing to planning this wedding, work, etc. No, posts will not be stopping. I’m going to try to compile news into a couple posts a week, but for the moment I won’t be able to hunt everything down. The best way to get your news to me is still to click the Contribute link at the top, even if you’re just sending me links to stuff on your tumblr/blog.

Other things in the work include a more substantial relaunch set for 2013, and some serious information gathering to flesh out the Wiki. The calendar will come back.

With that said, here’s some other recent news.

Ye olde Hands Up Houston board was recently wiped clean after the spam got out of control. There’s a new message board in town, Texas Is Dead, but you’re welcome to try resurrecting the old HUH board, if you like. Meanwhile, Hands Up has started a Facebook page and begun archiving and documenting its existence there.

Something Fierce released their split with Occult Detective Club two weeks ago, and you can still stream it online at PunkNews.org. The band is currently out on tour, but you can order a copy of the record through Green Noise Records and get one of the only 200 copies pressed on red vinyl.

There’s another new label in town, Little T & A Records, an offshoot of Cutthroat Records. According to the status updates, new LP’s by The Born Liars, Venomous Maximus and The Wrong Ones plus a 7” by Hell City Kings all at the pressing plant. Bill Fool declares the following on the about page:

Bands can send me their stuff but understand that this is a PUNK label and I will not put up with crap bands that have dreams of Epitaph or Fearless. That shit is gross.

Here’s a new instrumental jam from Jett I. Masstyr.

Speaking of, here’s a new HashBrown joint. 

The kid is only twelve, but you can grab Young Marqus’ mixtape H-Town Sponsor. There’s not much in the way of production details, but it’s got some slick stuff tucked inside it, including a Biggie sample.

Here’s a new jam from Hollywood Floss featuring Fat Tony and Speakz. Here’s another one featuring Termanology.

Mike Murland of The Jonbenét/Hospital/Black Congress has been slipping some new tunes out under the apt moniker Miguel Flaco.

Devin Finch, current member of what I can only deem is now Houston’s embassy in Los Angeles (see also: Shelby Hohl, Fat Tony, etc.), has been steadily cranking out some music through two projects: Linda Killerbee and Adultry Kidding.

Renzo has a new release, the Happy Hour EP, produced by That Purple Bastard.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few events tonight. First is the next installment of Canned Acoustica (volume VI), at Warehouse Live. You’ve still got some time to grab some cans. Yes, B L A C K I E is apparently doing an acoustic set. Check out a recent profile of Houston’s infamous noise rapper over at 405.

The other event that’s pretty striking in my opinion is this blues night group at MKT Bar (that’s the bar inside Phonecia downtown), which features Lucas Gorham and Omar Afra, as well as Davey Graves, Jason Jackson and other guests. This one starts at 8 PM and is free.

There’s plenty more I wanted to write about, but it’ll have to wait. For now, go check out the amazing Grandfather Child video set that you all should have watched last week when it debuted. Three songs (Cant’ Seem To Forget, …Gonna Have Ourselves A Vision, and New Orleans) captured in stunning style at the Edythe Bates Old Chapel in Round Top, Texas, directed by Brett Whitcomb and Bradford Thomason.